poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

I've never read Matther's work before, but it's wonderful. As odd as it sounds, I chose to read his work simply becuase of the fact that I liked his first name. :) However, my favorite of his is "Shakespeare"... He's wonderful!

Notes on Matthew Arnold's (1822-1888) "Dover Beach"

This is Arnold's most popular poem. It contains some of Arnold's deftist felicities: the realization of a tremulo in ll. 10-13, the impressive opening up of the a's and o's to reveal the sound that provokes the thought in ll. 24-25, and the memorable figures of speech in ll. 26-28 and 35-37. But the more remarkable aspect of the poem is its progress, in thirty-seven short lines, FROM the peace and quiet joy of the opening stanza to the desperate anguish with which the poem ends. Yet, in its dramatic framework (it is a dramatic monologue) the movement, although achieved in so short a space, is wholly credible. The basic contrast is between the appearance of the first stanza and the reality of the last. The sound of the ebb and flow is one stimulus; the memory of the tragic vision of Sophocles is another; the speaker's sudden, analogical perception of the death of the Christian era - a temporary compensation for the tragic awareness of Sophocles - is the third. The speaker is thus thrown back upon his own resources, of which human love is at once the most fragile and intelligible.

Excerpt FROM The Major Victorian Poets ed. William E. Buckler

Dover Beach concludes w/ a pessimistic lamentation relative to the possibility of human happiness in a time bereft of faith.

The world is a miserable place; all we have is each other.

I HAVE READ THIS POEM. I AND MY FRIENDS LIKE THIS POEM VERY MUCH.DONT FORGET TO READ THIS POEM.

this poem is a monologue, written in irregular stansas. the first verse foccuses on the physical setting with Arnold speaking to his lover. i think that Arnolds use of the sound of the pebbles is spectacular as they are a rerpresentative of humanbeings, as we are helplessand powerless and are constantly tossed back and forth. also the poets use of onomatopoeia really works well in the third stansa with the word 'roar'. its a great poem, hope you enjoy it as much as i did!!! Have fun!

I really like this poem. It makes excelent use of imagery.

This poem, by a man who was not the greatest Victorian poet -- that honor must go to Browning, Tennyson, or Hopkins -- is probably the most profoundly moving poem written in the nineteenth century. But, for those who would like a twentieth century take on the poem, from the point of view of the woman to whom the poem is addressed, I recommend "The Dover Bitch" by Anthony Hecht, a wonderfully satirical view of Arnold's point of view. Arnold's other really great poem, I think, is "The Buried Life."

I really enjoyed breaking this
piece apart and drawing out various conclusions as to what the poem could have meant. My strongest thoughts were of war, love and a sense of lost reality. I thought the poem was well written and was open for great exploration. My fav. line was Begin, and cease, and then again begin... and my other fav. is the last three lines, those two parts work together to show how love is like war and it is never certain (victories and defeat)... the use of language in the poem is great...I look forward to reading other work by Matthew Arnold...Wow!

This poem is directly quoted in Fahrenheit 451 and indirectly (just the last line) in Catch-22--see if you can find where!
Both marvelous books, I should add.